Love cannot die
by andiwillrun07
Summary: this is my first story on here, so be gentle. what i believe should have happened after GWTW. enjoy, please read and review :
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

Scarlett's Grief

I watched solemnly as he descended the stairs. With each step he took my heart broke a little. His back seemed so far away and I felt the helpless panic rise within my chest.

"Rhett."

I cried his name as I ran as quickly as I could down the stairs; the stairs that had caused me so much grief and pain in the past. I ran as fast as my legs could take me and as I reached the bottom, the tears in my eyes were blinding. I grabbed his arm as he went to walk out the door and I begged him to tell me what I should do with out him there. As he turned to answer, the emotionless pit in his eyes made my heart scream. Never in all the years I had known him, had I seen that look on his face. Before tonight, before the days that had come and gone, only love had been in those black eyes for me. But that love I had once seen was now gone.

"Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn."

Those words cut through me, through my heart, mind, and soul. I had lost him. Tears blurred my vision once again as I watched him disappear into the suffocating fog, and he was gone. The fog was that which has haunted my nightmares and I knew now that it was Rhett that I had been searching for all this time. The running through the fog, looking for something I couldn't find and that something was Rhett. He was my darling, my anchor, my love, but now I had lost him.

I walked back to those god-forsaken steps and fell upon them. Burying my face in my arms, it suddenly hit me that I would have to return to Tara to get my strength back. I was in no state to get Rhett back after losing Bonnie, Melly and now him. I needed to return to Tara and so that is what I did. I will get Rhett back, even if it nearly kills me.

Months passed as I wandered around Tara like a ghost. Melly had been laid to rest days before my departure from Atlanta and I had watched from afar as they lowered her body into the ground. I looked at no one but her small box in which would be her eternal bed, and it broke me to see her being covered in soil. I sunk to my knees when I lost sight of the little engraving on her coffin and in the back of my mind I heard Ashley soft weeping as he clung to India for comfort. I had no one to comfort me but myself. I would use the beautiful memory of her and our friendship to help me cope with her leaving me. I could cope with grief, but never abandonment. Getting over Rhett would be harder, because I didn't want to.

At Tara, I helped around the house, helped Suellen but she knew the fire and light within me had faded. Never in my life had I felt trapped by Tara, until now. Suellen finally seemed to care for me after years of contempt in which she had heard for me. I didn't care, as I deserved her hate. I had stolen the man she loved and I had killed him. I had been young, foolish and now I am paying my price.

"Scarlett, what's been eating you?" Cooed Mammy, and her kindness broke me down and I just cried.

Being at Tara increased the guilt in which I felt and I knew coming here had been a mistake. So I left Tara and decided to do some traveling to ease my mind. I picked the north to see what had captured Rhett's attention so greatly. Maybe I hoped I would see him there, but I knew the slim likelihood of that, as the north was so very large.

I found myself walking the streets of New York, nearly six months after Rhett had left me. Everything seemed so large and crowded. I didn't like it and I began to miss Tara once again. Lost in my own world, I walked on only to hear shouts and a feel a large sea of pain wash over me. Not knowing it, I had walked into a street of carriages and a goods-carriage had not been able to stop. I had been hit; the horse had trampled me. The physical pain did not erase the mental pain that stung my heart.

I came to, somewhat a week later, in a bed in a place that was strange to me. I asked a woman next to about our surroundings and she said we were in a nursing hospital for those who are recovering from accidents. I didn't know these things existed, when ill we women normally remain in our beds at home. These Yankees were odd people.

Before I could recall what had happened to me, Mammy came running in with a look of worry on her kind dark face.

"Oh ma lawd, Miss Scarlett. What is happening to you? I thought you left Tara to get better not worse. Now Mammy gots to come all the way to Yankee Ville to get you."

She placed her hand on my head and it was then when I noticed her age. Mammy was getting old and in my selfishness, I hadn't realised. Tears welled up again and I know then that things would never be the same again. Mammy soothed my tears and aching head. She told ma of what had happened to me, about the accident, the fever that was very like the one I had suffered after my fall down the stairs and she also told me about how I had called for Rhett. With this information I realised that Rhett has indeed burrowed his way into my heart and that is where he was going to stay until the day my heart stops beating.

Fear grew inside me as I came to realise that my reasons for living were wearing out, only Mammy kept me living and she won't last forever.

"And he didn't come?"

"No child for we gots no way of knowing where he is."

"I want to go home now, Mammy."

"I know, child, I know."

Once again I returned to Tara after five months of experiencing the north. Rhett had been away nearly eight months now and I was starting to fear he might have forgotten me. I decided never to go back to the north again.

Months went by and I knew that wasn't it about time that Rhett paid me a visit to keep the gossip down. I realised then that he could have tried when I was away.

One day I was sitting on the back porch of house, I cried into my blanket, as there seemed to be few moments when I wasn't crying. I was careful not to touch the giant gash on my cheek from my accident, but I knew it would scar either way. My beauty was ruined. My love was gone. My beauty was gone. All I could do now was sit back and watch my beauty leave me too and watch as age consumed me to my last day.

I felt a figure stand behind me and I called for him/her to leave me be. My voice sounded frail, like one dying, but they did not obey my wish.

"Please could you give me my peace?"

"No, I will not. You have had enough and I have come to visit you."

The voice I heard was foreign to Tara but not to me. The voice was magical and I froze in my seat, daring not to move, as to break the dream. I was scared he would see my face and the grotesque mark on my face. I feared he would laugh at my foolishness and me. I didn't want to see the horror in the man's eyes as he realised I was no longer beautiful to look at. I felt my heart sink and hid my face in the blanket that lay on my lap.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Rhett's Visit

The fog was thick as I left her standing there by the house's door. I had hurt her and I did not feel any regret as she had hurt me far worse in the past. I kicked myself though when I felt my heart clench at the sound of her crying but I was tired now. I had to get away. I was tired of loving Scarlett. I had to escape.

I knocked on Belle's door feeling everything hit me all at once. As she opened it, I fell forwards to my knees and wept. She hugged me to her, a woman much like a sister to me, and I wept into her skirts, wishing I were dead.

Two weeks went by and in that time Melanie's funeral came to pass. I had gone to the burial and had hidden behind the tree watching as Scarlett clung to herself. All alone and I could not look as she fell to her knees. I returned back to Belle's later that night knowing I should not have gone, belle had been right. That night I drank myself to oblivion and drank my sorrows away. I knew then that it was time for me to leave Atlanta behind. I hoped I would never come back.

I began my 'new life' by going to visit my mother but she would not see me after I had told her in a letter of Scarlett's and my separation. My mother had always wanted to meet her daughter-in-law properly but apparently I had prevented it. It was not my fault Scarlett had refused to spend time with her. Scarlett was really a destroyer of things that were meant to be happy.

I left Charleston and went to New Orleans. I thought this place would be Ideal to get her off my mine but visions of Scarlett and her emerald green eyes haunted every corner of the town. I felt so tired and I wished she would just leave my mind and me alone. I did not know why I had shut out her confession to me, as it had been everything I wanted. But the fear of being hurt, the fear of being betrayed again filled my heart and got the better of me so I left before her obsession for me became larger, like it had been for Ashley. Though I wanted to prevent it, in my head, deep down, I felt my heart yearn for her greatly and it screamed to me to hold her. With each step I took away from her that night, a crack grew. It had taken me a lot to get away from that green eyes vixen that had stolen my heart all those years ago when I had seen that day at Twelve Oaks. She had her claws in it. They were stuck in there from the moment I laid eyes on her.

I had had no choice but to shut her out and I closed all the windows to my heart, as it was far too much for me. I do not love her anymore.

Months passed and I found myself in Chicago. I was paying a visit to a Yankee that had been my card-playing companion during my time of imprisonment. I remember dearly on day while I was up north being brought a newspaper at breakfast and it was then when I realised I had been away from Scarlett for about four months. I would have to visit her some day as I had promised, but I couldn't just yet. I could not look into her face as I was not stable enough yet. Not stable enough to withstand her tempting me with those beautiful eyes. Though I was numb, I felt endangered and there was a large possibility that I would fall into that same pit t of darkness that I had been incarcerated in for the last twelve or so years.

"Did you heard, Captain Butler? My wife is expecting a baby".

The joy in the Yankee's eyes as he told me about the precious good news was sickening. I peered up to the waited that had served me everyday of my stay in Chicago. I realised he w only a boy and he knew nothing of real pain.

"Listen, boy, when your wife tells you she loves you, burn her to the ground ad all women are just plain liars."

I had not intended to be so cruel or rude to the boy but his happiness annoyed me. Why could I not be that happy? Was I that terrible to not deserve a happy life? I stood from the table and decided to then leave Chicago and go elsewhere.

Another two months passed as I paid visits to various other Yankee companions. I ended up in New York nearly seven months after leaving my home. Scarlett was still in my mind, no doubt about it, as I sat drinking in a bar with a fellow captain.

"Did you hear?" He asked.

"No, What is it that I have meant to have heard?"

"One of your pretty ladies from he south had come to visit New York. She was unaccompanied and she unfortunately happened to walk into a street. A horse and carriage hit her. Crazy, huh?"

I chuckled at his last statement and enquired who the lady might have been.

"Oh, I believe you once knew her. I was the officer on duty when the accident was reported. I think her name was Mrs. Kennedy when I met her before. Yeah that's right, Mrs. Kennedy. Her name is probably changed now but I didn't get to ask her name, I only saw her. She was knocked about bad."

"What happened to her?"

I struggled to keep the horror from showing on my face and the worry from invading my voice. But the emotion kept building up inside me and it took all of my strength to prevent it from surfacing.

"She… Oh I don't know," He shrugged and his cluelessness annoyed me.

I felt my mouth go dry, so I took another sip of my drink. But the liquid wouldn't go down. I spat it back into the glass, quickly excused myself. I was away from the table before I could answer his question. My eyes burned and my heart throbbed in my chest. Scarlett hurt? I felt myself begin to panic as I reached he gentleman's washroom. I could not breath and I had to move quickly into a cubical. I reached the toilet in time and as I fell to my knees, my stomach emptied of contents. I remained bent over the seat as my eyes brimmed full of unshed tears and I cried into my sleeve.

When I had cleared myself up, Ii was out of the bar and storming to my hotel. I was furious. Why was she in the north? I bet she was following me no doubt. I was more furious with myself that I had worried about her. I could not help it. Though I did not love her, she still kept her little place in my heart and I did not know whether she was alive or dead.

Once I was back in my room, I sat down on my bed and buried my head in my hands. If there was one woman that could make me cry and that woman was Scarlett. Me, the great scandalous ladies man, was crying due to some woman who was just as bad as I was. I hated her for it. I was not going to rush and see her. I was going to wait and act as though I did not car or know about what had happened.

After a month of torturing myself from worry, I decided I was ready to find out what had happened to Scarlett and pay Tara a visit. I took the train and when I did finally arrive at the place, a frowning Mammy greeted me. She hated me and for once in my time of knowing her, I didn't give a damn. I feared what I might see when Mammy told me that scarlet was alive. But I had to make sure and the most important thing was that I didn't show any emotions.

"She's out the back. Don't you go upsetting her, she was very nearly killed".

I winced at her words and proceeded to the back porch. There, in a wheel chair, sat Scarlett. She had her back to me and I could see she was hunched forward from pain. I could hear muffled cries as I stood watching her. I was unable to move. What have I done?

She noticed my presence and asked me to leave, thinking I was probably Suellen or Mammy. But I did not move. I remained watching her. Each word she uttered was frail and weak. The Scarlett I had once loved was in front of me, but she seemed like someone else. There before me was a suffering woman that I did not recognise. Her face will still be beautiful, I am sure of that. I already felt the guilt building up within me and I hadn't even seen her face.

"Please could you give me my peace?"

I refused and she filched when she heard my voice. I watched horrified as she buried herself further into her blanket. My heart tightened as I saw her pull the blanket up over her face. Anger overwhelmed me as I thought to myself how could she dare hide anything from me, she was my wife.

I walked around so she was facing me, but I still could not see her face. I could tell though that her skin was pale and she was still sick. I saw a bandage around her wrist. I frowned and asked her to show me her face.

"No, you can't look at me. I'm hideous."

I knelt down before her. The attempts to hide emotions had failed and I could tell tears were showing in my eyes. They had grown silently as soon as she uttered those last words. This was not my Scarlett: I wanted her back. I wanted to see her face. No, I needed to see her face.

I pulled her arms down and put my hand under her chin so she would look up at me with her dazzlingly lovely eyes. Though her eyes had closed, I was horrified to see the scarring on her face. She was still beautiful but the dark shadows around her eyes and the deep red cut across her porcelain face made my heart fracture.

"Oh my pet."

At my words, she opened her eyes to me. If the scar had caused me much distress, then the sight of her eyes nearly killed me. The sparkle that had been was now gone. That same sparkle that had trapped me in its web. There was only a faint gaze of love left inside them; those now faded emerald eyes that had once captured a whole load of hearts.

She was still my darling. I had left her and now look what had happened. I had left her alone to wallow to decay and to grieve. All the hate in which I had felt for this woman left me and in its place I felt pity. I wanted to save this woman in front of me; despite all the pain she had caused me. Nearly losing her life was enough punishment I believe and I will save her, even if it took every last breath in my body.


End file.
